Minocqua Area Fishing Report
Hopefully we hit bottom for a while. 1/13 AM. temp -27 degrees! Forecast to be in the low 30's by this weekend. Cold the past 9 days, severely affected angler participation. Reports from some of the more serious die-hards were surprisingly not all that bad. The one good thing about the most recent cold snap has been ice production. Last Monday ice thickness averaged about 13 inches, reports over the weekend have most lakes covered with 16-20"+, making for better access with full sized trucks.
Walleyes: Poor-Fair (improving). Despite brutal cold, a few anglers working the larger deeper lakes found some good walleyes over deep humps. Jigging Raps, as well as ultralight Rippin Raps and Vibrato spoons worked for fish of 20-26". The tip-up anglers needed hole covers to keep their tip-ups working, but found some success after dark on suckers.
Crappies: Poor-Fair (improving). Most all the bay fishing (8-12'weeds)shut off during this cold spell. Occasional bites would occur. Best at this time was to work deeper water or flowages. Even then the bite was inconsistent. Some anglers in these situations found crappies surprisingly high in water column, sometimes 10-12' high in 16-18' water.
Northern Pike: Poor- Fair (improving). This species helped keep some anglers spirits up by tripping a few flags this weekend. Big shiners won out.
Yellow Perch: Poor- Fair (improving) Deep water was key for perch anglers. Cold kept searching to a minimum, so anglers hunkered down in their portables... pounding the mud, anglers have been able to wait out passing schools of perch. Hali jigs tipped with wigglers are best.
Bluegills: Poor-Fair. To cold to move about. A few fish on #14 gill pills tipped with a single spike.
Largemouth Bass: Poor.
With a warming trend moving into the area by weeks end, along with a new moon phase coming up, look for a break from this cold snap and some better action coming up.
Kurt
Island Sportshop
Minocqua, Wi